A few weeks back a big announcement swept the gaming community. It was an announcement I feared for some time: Minecraft was sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. It isn’t earth-shattering, but it’s big news if you’re familiar with the parties involved. And as someone who has spent decades using Microsoft’s products, and dozens of hours (hundreds?) playing Minecraft, I feel like I’m familiar. With a community of millions of players, and the attention of an audience that ranges from age zeroand up, it seems like nothing can stop this game from going on as far as its world does. Or will it?

Everyone knowsMinecraft at this point. Everyone has tried it and you either love it or you don’t see the point at all. I’m one of the former. This game has me hooked for some reason, and when I tried to figure out why, it took me a while. What’s so fun about a game with no plot, no characters, no specific enemies, and only one level? This is the list of reasons I came up with.

More features? More fun? You bet. The latest version of Minecraft was released today, and fans can rest assured that Herobrine was removed again. Somehow he keeps sneaking back in there. Below is an abbreviated list of changes derived from the excellent coverage over at the Minecraft Forums, as well as the version history of the Minecraft Wiki for more.